The future actuaries of the country now studying at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) got a sneak preview of the non-life insurance industry when the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) Campus Tour visited the Manila-based school recently.

Almost 200 students majoring in Actuarial Science trooped to the PIRA Campus Tour to listen to two experts from the industry as they presented career prospects and growth opportunities in non-life insurance.

Armand Pesigan, Senior Vice President of Pioneer Insurance, spoke about how actuarial science majors can actually "create their future" by choosing a career in insurance.

He talked about the importance of non-life insurance and the role it plays in the global and local economy and stressed the need for people who are good at science and math.

The second speaker, Januario Aliwalas, the Executive Director of the Insurance Institute for Asia and the Pacific (IIAP), discussed the SUITS Program and invited the students to join.

SUITS stands for Select Universities Insurance Training Scholarship. It is a two-month intensive management training course that the IIAP offers for free to qualified applicants. Those who go through this course are sought after by insurance companies and immediately hired for managerial positions.

Pesigan and Aliwalas stressed that they never planned to work in the insurance industry and discovered their careers by accident.